Cost of US sex-abuse scandal tops $5 billion
January 16, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: The latest study of the clerical sex-abuse crisis in the US has found that American dioceses and religious orders have paid more than $5 billion to resolve abuse cases.
The study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), covering abuse charges that have been filed in the past 20 years, puts the overall cost of the scandal a just over $5 billion, including legal fees.
The study finds that the number of sex-abuse complaints has dropped, with only 3% of the cases involving incidents that occurred after 2000. More than 90% of the cases covered in the study dated back to before 1989; in many such cases the alleged perpetrator was already deceased.
The CARA study confirmed that 80% of the abuse complaints involved male victims, with a vast majority (80%) involving adolescent or teenage boys.
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